Yes, believe it or not, you read the title card correctly. DayZ, the phenomenon that swept the PC gaming scene by storm in 2014, is finally making its way over to consoles. This process only took developer Bohemia Interactive 4 years to finally port it.
The question I have for Bohemia is: isn’t this port a couple of years too late?
Resurrect DayZ From The Dead
Four years ago, all you heard was how amazing DayZ was. It was consistently a top-played and top-streamed PC title. It had adrenaline pumping gameplay, and was overall a very intense zombie survival experience, because not only did you have to worry about running into a horde of zombies, but at any giving moment you could be getting hunted by a fellow player.
At that time there was nothing like it, but 4 years on, the DayZ scene has changed drastically.
Let’s face it, DayZ is nowhere near as popular as it used to be. If you take a look at Steam charts, this game has been haemorrhaging more and more players every single year. This could be directly related to the recent rise of the battle royale genre.
The Battle Royale Effect
DayZ and the battle royale titles have similar gameplay loops: being a player in a large open environment, you have to use the terrain, loot supplies and fight other players around you in order to survive.
Another issue that could have caused DayZ’s demise is the fact the game is STILL an Early Access title after being playable for over 4 years. And, to make matters worse, DayZ still has some of the same glaring issues that it did when it was originally released in Early Access. The main issue? A lack of an end game.
Yes, the end game has been the biggest issue for Bohemia since the beginning, they can’t seem to figure out what players want to do in their title.
DayZ’s end game is simply ‘survive for as long you can with your character’, and that’s it. So, you end up doing to the same gameplay loops over and over again. Loot supplies, avoid zombies, kill or hunt other players to take their loot, and avoid getting killed at all cost. Yeah… sounds pretty repetitive right?
So, what I’m assuming is after the rise of games like PUBG and Fortnite, Bohemia is thinking, in order for their title to survive, they need to tap into a new audience. And, this seems to be why they’re finally porting DayZ over to Xbox. I understand the reasoning behind this because the brand still has some recognition, but is it too little too late?
We will find out soon enough if Bohemia can bring DayZ back to its glory days when it launches later this year on Xbox One.
In the meantime, you can check out some early gameplay footage of DayZ running on an Xbox One X down below.